Fast Talk on a Slow Track was written by an author called, Rita Williams-Garcia. She wrote this book, "For the bright young men in her freshmen class in college who were suddenly caught off guard by failure." Rita probably saw a lot of her friends go down in smoke. In dedication to them, she wrote Fast Talk on a Slow Track.
This is a book that lots of teenagers can relate to. There are a lot of teenagers that feel that they are so smart that they can take all of their school courses lightly. These people remind me of the main character in the book.
This book was very captivating. The book drew me into the story. Every time I finished a chapter, I couldn't wait to start the next one.
Rita williams-Garcia has written two other books. They are: 'Blue Tights' and 'Like Sisters on a Homefront'. I haven't actually read these books, but if they are anything like 'Fast Talk on a Slow Track' then they should be just as breathtaking as well. Rita has two daughters and she lives in Jamaica, New York.
In Fast Talk on a Slow Track the main character, "Denzel" encounters several incidents which can happen to any bright individual. One of these incidents was with a college professor who told Denzel and the rest of the class in a special program to read one hundred pages of a book called, On the Road. The next day, there was a class discussion of the story. Although Denzel read the pages, he was totally lost. The professor got irritated at Denzel and lectured him about achievement in the classroom.
There was a cultural incident in Denzel's life that made him think. It referred to his prize of being valedictorian. Denzel's best friend, a white girl called Wendy, got mad at him because she thought that she deserved to be valedictorian. She said that she didn't get to be valedictorian because she was in a black school. Wendy said that her test grades were higher, but she still didn't get to be valedictorian.
The incident that happened between Denzel and the professor can happen to anyone at certain times, but Denzel took it the wrong way and didn't want to go to college just because of this incident. I think that a lot of people are like Denzel. They fail to do something the first time and they don't try anymore. I like the way Rita wrote about events that could happen in real life. When she writes about events that could possibly happen, people can see what could possibly happen to them.
I can relate to the incident that Denzel had with his professor. Sometimes I think that a school assignment is going to be easy. Then I realize that the assignment is hard when it is too late, and end up failing the assignment. I would, however, never let failure put me down. Denzel was feeling that college was a waste of time after his incident, while I would just try harder the next time.
I think that the things that Wendy said about being valedictorian wasn't really an issue of race. I think that Wendy thought that she really had better grades than Denzel; the book doesn't let the reader know if Wendy was telling the truth. It is up to the reader to decide if she was right or wrong.
I think that this book should be read by teenagers. It is perfect on the high school level. The book contains ideas about things that would be very valuable for a high school student to know about, I also think that people in middle school could read this book because they can also learn from the story. The vocabulary in the book is easy to comprehend, but some kids under the high school level wouldn't understand some of the words used in the book.
This is one of the best books I have read in high school. It teaches people about the value of education. People who read Fast Talk on a Slow Track will understand where Rita is coming from. She saw a lot of people fail out of college, so she wrote this book to show people how hard it is to succeed in this world. Maybe Rita will help a lot of people realize that they have to work very hard to survive in a world of competition. I think that anyone who reads this book would think about their education a lot more than they used to think about it.